


Day 6: Mistletoe

by madam_wakefield



Series: Berena Advent 2018 [6]
Category: Holby City
Genre: Berena Advent 2018, Canon Divergence, Challenge Response, Christmas, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madam_wakefield/pseuds/madam_wakefield





	Day 6: Mistletoe

They don’t kiss in theatre. 

Serena told Bernie that Fletch thinks she is the most fantastic and fearless doctor in the hospital. She watches as her words make Bernie smile, and can’t help the smile that overtakes her own face. It seems Bernie’s eyes are drawn to her own lips and she can’t stop her own eyes being drawn to Bernie’s, but just before they are about the kiss, the doors bang open and they jump apart.

Bernie seems to recoil into herself after that and it worries Serena. Bernie has become so open over the past few months, but she seems to be reverting to the woman she was when they first met. Serena can’t help but worry, although at the same time, she can’t help but wonder how different things might be right now if they hadn’t been interrupted. 

Opposite shifts mean they don’t see each other much for a while. They become, as Bernie puts it, ships passing in the night—and day. Serena misses Bernie’s company more than she cares to admit, more than she ever missed Edward when he was away, more than she ever misses Robbie. She knows her feelings run deeper than friendship, but with Bernie being so closed off and with the fact they aren’t even on the same shifts to share a friendly coffee, Serena keeps them well and truly buried. Well, mostly—at night after she’s polished off a bottle of Shiraz by herself, she sometimes dreams of what life could be like right now if she had kissed Bernie on the theatre floor. 

Serena comes so close to telling Bernie how she feels. When she sees Mr. and Mrs. Higgson and how little time they are going to have because of Cathy’s MS, it makes her want to grab the moment and run with it. But just as she’s telling Bernie she’s got something to say to her, Bernie says the same thing. She lets Bernie go first and when Bernie tells her she’s leaving for Ukraine, her heart breaks. When Bernie asks her what she wanted to talk about, Serena lies and says she has a date. If she hadn’t been so worried about mending her own broken heart, Serena may have seen the fleeting expression that crossed Bernie’s face at the revelation.

The weeks without Bernie are quiet: They send the occasional email, but it’s not the same as having her friend here with her. She can’t turn and joke with Bernie about the patient she’s been treating. She accompanies Ric to Albie’s and with her tongue loose from too many glasses of wine, she tells him all about her feelings for Bernie. She sees pity in his eyes and knows she is a lost cause. 

When Bernie returns from Ukraine, it’s like nothing has changed—until Jason mentions Robbie and Serena watches as the sparkle in Bernie’s eyes goes dull. 

They play their little friendship game well into December. They both agree to attend the Christmas party together, neither having a plus one and neither wanting to be alone. It’s a nice evening, as the food is amazing and the wine is a little cheap but still good, and the company is even better. They are surrounded by their AAU family as well as other members of the staff who they could never name. 

They are drunk enough to all dance together, Fletch twirling Bernie while Raf takes the lead with Serena. After a while Serena excuses herself for a drink, Bernie following not long after. The song has changed to some totally cheesy party dance and as Serena sits on the bar stool, she smiles at Fletch and Raf in their drunk state trying to keep in time to the music. 

Ten minutes later Bernie joins her and offers her a refill which Serena takes readily, neither of them scheduled to work the next day. Since she’s working most of Christmas, she plans to enjoy herself. She’s just about to take a sip of the wine when she hears a throat clearing to the left of her. Ric and Dom are standing there, giggling and pointing to the mistletoe that has appeared above her head, although Serena could have sworn it wasn’t there when she sat down five minutes before. 

She looks to Bernie and realises the mistletoe is over them both. This time it’s Serena who looks at Bernie’s lips first, not being able to help but once again think about how different things might be if only they had kissed on the theatre floor. She watches as Bernie’s eyes find her own lips and suddenly, without really know who made the first move, their lips meet, and somehow despite the wine Bernie’s been drinking she tastes like chocolate and honeycomb. Bernie’s lips are soft and yielding against hers, and with some of her self-consciousness gone due to the amount she’s drunk, she can’t help but moan gently. 

She pulls away only when she needs air. If this is the only time she will get to kiss Bernie Wolfe, she is going to make the most of it. But as they pull away, Bernie looks at her with so much tenderness Serena feels as if her world sharply tilted on its axis. Bernie feels the same way she does. And suddenly Ric, Dom and Raf and Fletch (who seem to have appeared out of nowhere) are cheering. 

“About bloody time, ladies,” Ric says with no real malice, and it’s in that moment that Serena knows where the mistletoe came from. And when Bernie leans in to gently kiss her again, Serena can’t hold it against him. 

And when ten years later on Christmas Eve their granddaughter Maisie asks how they got together, they start by telling her they have Ric Griffin and a sprig of mistletoe to blame before telling her the whole story. And the next year when Maisie holds mistletoe over their head laughing and saying they have to kiss, they can’t be anything but thankful for Ric Griffin and his interfering ways.


End file.
